News

Heavy fishing deep east of Iceland

Landing fish from Lundey NS began this afternoon and according to skipper Arnthór Hjörleifsson this was a 600 tonne trip with a mixed catch of herring and mackerel. He said that the last two hauls of the trip had been taken deep off the east coast where there was some very heavy fishing.

‘We started the trip off Hérádsflói and then shifted further south until we were fishing south-east of Hornafjördur. There we were getting a mackerel proportion of 30-40%. Then we finally shifted north-east and took our last two hauls in an area that’s only 50 to 60 nautical miles from the Faroese line. The first haul was around 150 tonnes after 160 minutes and the second tow was shorter for 110 to 120 tonnes,’ he said, commenting that he reckons roughly 70% of these two hauls was herring and the rest mackerel.

According to Gardar Svavarsson, head of the pelagic department at HB Grandi, the company’s vessels have landed approximately 11,000 tonnes of mackerel and 7500 tonnes of Atlanto-Scandian herring at Vopnafjördur so far this season.

Freighter’s welcome call

Coastal freighter Pioneer Bay is now at Vopnafjördur and this is the first time that a ship of this kind has visited the port since coastal sea transport began again earlier this summer after a long interval. Magnús Róbertsson, factory manager at HB Grandi’s Vopnafjördur factory, said that the return of coastal traffic is very welcome.

‘The ship docked here yesterday with a cargo of heavy goods such as concrete flagstones that it makes far more sense to transport by sea than by road. We took the opportunity and we are loading Pioneer Bay with 25 containers of mainly mackerel products,’ he said.

According to Gardar Svavarsson, the intention is to ship 500 tonnes of mackerel by sea in the containers to Holland. There the products will be forwarded in new containers to customers in Asian and southern Europe.